Panelists urge action, not talk, to better Milwaukee

There were plenty of ideas to improve Milwaukee that were floated at Monday night’s “Envisioning the Seen” panel discussion at the Pabst Theater in downtown Milwaukee, some perhaps far-fetched, others more feasible.

But everyone agreed sitting around talking about solutions won’t improve Milwaukee — each city resident needs to step up.

“Complaining about leadership is a waste of time,” said Evelyn Patricia Terry, a Milwaukee visual artist who is involved in mentoring, advocacy and educational workshops. “For me, leadership begins with ourselves.”

Other solutions the 12 civic and business leaders discussed at the event, organized by Historic Milwaukee Inc., ranged from creating a research and development triangle between Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago, to forming a trust fund to support existing Milwaukee buildings, to appointing “mayors” of neighborhood blocks to advocate for improvements to their small piece of the city.

Jonathan Jackson, Milwaukee Film artistic and executive director, even argued in favor of legalizing pot and taxing it heavily.

“It’s going to happen,” Jackson said of pot legalization in America. “We should step forward and be the city that does it first. Let’s stop putting money in the prisons and let’s put it back in the community.”

I was there when Milwaukee Film screened the 2012 documentary “The House I Live In” in January. The film took a hard look at America’s war on drugs and offered some sobering statistics, such as how black people are 10 times more likely to be jailed for drug offenses than white people, even though both groups use drugs at approximately equal rates.

Milwaukee native Nigel Wade opened the evening with a performance of his spoken word piece “New York Didn’t Make Me,” a reflection of what drew him back home and an unflinching critique of Milwaukee’s segregation and urban decay that undoubtedly made some squirm in their seats.

Sally Peltz, founder and CEO of Legacy Redevelopment Corp., said Wade’s story needs to be part of the dialogue. She said the planned transformation of Milwaukee’s lakefront through several planned high rises and moving the Lake Interchange ramps to free up land for development is “extraordinary.”

“How do we do something as incredible and significant on North Avenue, in the central city?” Peltz said.

Jackson said Milwaukee should follow the Oklahoma City model and implement a 1 cent sales tax to fund a new downtown arena and other civic projects.

“Portland (Ore.) on transportation, Oklahoma City on how they did the tax thing, Chicago on how you kick (butt) in politics and just get things done, and Washington on how not to do it,” Mervis said to much laughter and applause.

Someone then shouted “I like Mike!” from the audience, a reference to former President Dwight Eisenhower’s “I like Ike” campaign slogan.